Narratives
As Insights readers will know, we are big believers in the productivity benefits of artificial intelligence (AI)—with the rather large caveat that there are many applications where the technology isn’t quite ready yet. That said, there is an increasing body of evidence suggesting that implementations haven’t delivered the expected productivity gains.
Our view is that this is likely due to a combination of said inappropriate applications and a lack of talented implementors in the labour force. Time will tell, but we believe it is important to question the prevailing AI takeover narrative, even if it is just a matter of timing.
The Attention Economy and Young People
Kyla Scanlan on the challenges facing young people entering the workforce. The world is always experiencing one form of disruption or another, but the current pace of technology-driven change is certainly extreme relative to history. This is creating unintended (and undesirable) consequences, which we will no doubt be analyzing for years to come.
When narrative production becomes more valuable than actual production, we risk creating a world where attention harvesting matters more than building things.
The A.I.-Profits Drought and the Lessons of History
There has been contrarian data, some of which is visualized above, around the profit impact of AI. This piece from The New Yorker explores the current landscape as well as some historical lessons from the dawn of the internet.
Despite $30 – $40 billion in enterprise investment into GenAI, this report uncovers a surprising result in that 95% of organizations are getting zero return.
Soft Skills Matter Now More Than Ever
What is old is new again? With technology taking on a large part of the burden in white collar technical work, foundational skills may have increased value. The link between this data from Harvard Business Review and the articles above probably doesn’t need further elaboration!
Think of the NBA draft. Teams don’t always pick the top college scorers. Instead, they look for players with high potential—those with the right foundations like speed, agility, ball control, positional sense, and shooting form. These players may not shine on day one, but they often develop into stars because their foundation gives them room to grow.
NO POWERPOINTS
A Jeff Bezos classic on why there aren’t PowerPoints for internal meetings at Amazon. This one is nostalgic for us as we borrowed this rule in the early days of Capitalize for Kids.
When you have to write your ideas out in complete sentences it forces a deeper clarity.
Please join us in welcoming Sarah Van Aaken, who started with Gallant MacDonald as the newest member of our Client Experience team. Sarah has nearly a decade of industry experience and will be an integral part of the team.
Gallant MacDonald is a Private Investment Office serving a select group of ultra-high net worth families who have made significant contributions to business, public service, and philanthropy.
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